What an enjoyable read! It's the perfect combination of some of my favourite genres: chicklit, mysterie and romance. <snip>

I have this, but haven't read it yet; I'll move it up on my TBR list.

I've just started The Cart Before The Corpse (The Merry Abbot Carriage-Driving Mystery) by Carolyn McSparren. I have also been reading parts and pieces of various short story collections; nothing stands out, but enjoyable for those short periods of time when I don't have the time to get into a good story.

I've still got Lolita on the back-burner. Finding it hard to keep the momentum going on that book.

Finally finished this book. I think a couple of things played against me. One was that I was reading this in paperback which seems to becoming more and more difficult to me for some reason. Secondly, the first half of the book concentrates so much on the main character's desires, it becomes boring regardless of the beauty of the language.

The second half slowly became better with me enjoying it considerably more towards the end. I think I will put this on a re-read list at a time when I have an eCopy. I think I'll appreciate it much more the second time around.

I'm still going on Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, but I'll now add my next indie read/review to the queue. This time it's Slaves of God by Brian Rappatta. It took me quite some time to agree to the read and review this book because the sample seemed very dark. I felt like there was an underlying sickness to the writing that I wasn't sure I wanted to suffer through.

But in the end, my love of darkness got the better of me so I'm giving it a go.

<snip>
I've just started The Cart Before The Corpse (The Merry Abbot Carriage-Driving Mystery) by Carolyn McSparren. I have also been reading parts and pieces of various short story collections; nothing stands out, but enjoyable for those short periods of time when I don't have the time to get into a good story.

Finished and I loved it. A Southern (Mossy Creek, Georgia) murder mystery in the world of carriage-horse trainers.

Quote:

Famous southern carriage-horse trainer Hiram Lackland, a handsome widower, dies mysteriously after retiring to a farm outside Mossy Creek. His estranged daughter, Merry Abbott, also a horse trainer, arrives to settle his estate. But Merry quickly plunges into bit-chomping dilemmas when her father's friend and landlord, mystery-novel maven Peggy Caldwell, insists he was murdered. Before Merry can so much as snap a buggy rein, a handsome and annoying GBI investigator, Geoff Madison, is on her case. Then there's the troublesome donkey: Don Qui. Short for Don Quixote. And the fact that Hiram was teaching all of Mossy Creek's lonely women how to--ahem--drive his carriage. Can Merry rein in the truth? What kind of horse play was her rakish dad involved in, and why would someone want to giddy-yup him into an early grave?

Currently reading (listening to) The Prisoner of Brenda, the latest in the Mystery Man series by Colin Bateman, which is fun and ocassionally laugh-out-loud:

Quote:

When notorious gangster 'Fat Sam' Mahood is murdered, the chief suspect is arrested nearby. But he seems to have suffered a breakdown. Incarcerated in a mental institution, he's known only as the Man in the White Suit. The suspect remains an enigma until Nurse Brenda calls on Mystery Man, former patient and owner of No Alibis, Belfast's finest mystery bookshop, to bring his powers of investigation to bear...

I'm just finishing up Guilt by Jonathan Kellerman, the latest Alex Delaware offering. Engaging, if a little slow:

Quote:

When a young couple takes possession of their dream home, they can't wait to remodel the neglected mansion. That is until they make a gruesome discovery of a rusted metal strongbox. And inside the box, swaddled in sheets of sixty-year-old newspaper, lies a tiny human skeleton...

Just finished "Winning Colors", the 3rd book in the Heris Serrano series by Elizabeth Moon. This book is essentially the third part of a trilogy which began with "Hunting Party" and continued with "Sporting Chance". Very enjoyable SF. This continues my goal of reading more of the very early Baen books I've bought; this one dates from the late '90s.

Back to Inspector Alleyn now, with "When in Rome", the 26th book in Ngaio Marsh's long-running series.

Just finished "Winning Colors", the 3rd book in the Heris Serrano series by Elizabeth Moon. This book is essentially the third part of a trilogy which began with "Hunting Party" and continued with "Sporting Chance". Very enjoyable SF. This continues my goal of reading more of the very early Baen books I've bought; this one dates from the late '90s.

Back to Inspector Alleyn now, with "When in Rome", the 26th book in Ngaio Marsh's long-running series.

There are 4 more books in the Familias Regnant Universe. The next two focus on Esmay Suiza and the last two on both Herris Serrano and Esmay Suiza.
Once A Hero
Rules of Engagement
Baen had these two as an Omnibus. The Serrano Connection October 2008 Baen Omnibus Edition

Change of Command
Against the Odds
The Serrano Succession: Omnibus contains these two, but is not a Baen Offering.

I am currently reading Death at the Crossroad by Dale Furutani. It is the first of his Samurai Mystery Trilogy. If I like it I will pick up the other two.
Apache

I've just finished Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov, earlier than expected thanks to couple of days in bed with a virus. I was expecting to find it a bit dull, but actually I kind of enjoyed revisiting the Foundation. I read the original trilogy last year; I can only imagine how it must have been to wait over 30 years.

I wouldn't say it was a great book. It's still kind of talky and a bit silly, but it was enjoyable enough on its own terms.

I agree that the novel Host by Stephenie Meyer has significant differences to her Twilight series - the characters are adult and the telling seemed directed at an older audience. However, it still did have a significant romance aspect, and ... let's just say she's not offering any surprises there.

I had picked up the book when it was a Kindle Daily Deal, two bucks or something. I figured it was cheap enough to take a chance on. At the time I probably would not have bought it at full price (at this writing $5.99). I'm very glad to have risked it.

The premise of the novel is that parasitic aliens called Souls have taken over the Earth. A Soul who inhabits a human is able to exert complete control over the body and can access the human's memories and personality. The original human consciousness is suppressed and eventually erased.

Melanie Stryder is an exception, a fluke. When a Soul is put into her body, she retains her own consciousness even as the alien Soul controls her actions. Soon the alien Soul finds herself compelled to protect the people Melanie loves, even at the risk of her life.

There's much more to the novel, but that's the premise in two paragraphs.

Since these have been so fast, I will go ahead and move onto the next one, Wormhole.

And that one is done now too. Good series, plenty of action. I look forward to the prequel Jack Gregory novel (or two) from before this time period. Maybe something after now that their world has been changed so drastically too.

I am going to change genres and start Chop Suey by Ty Hutchinson - Darby Stansfield gets involved with the mob and it turns out how everyone else would expectThe Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Something between yesterday and today changed and I didn't feel like Chop Suey today.

Don't ask me why, but I downloaded Natural Bed Bug Treatment: How To Get Rid Of Bed Bugs Without Toxic Chemicals or Insecticides (Kill Bed Bugs Fast Without Poisoning Yourself or Your Family) (Organic Pest Control) by Tvedten, Stephen. It was a freebie from amazon that I saw while I was checking the various genres under free.

I have heard people talk about bed bugs in hotels when they traveled and was curious what they were and how to tell if you had them. The book crept me out and I spent an hour checking out my bed, mattress, walls and then washing and drying all my bedding at super hot temps. I didn't find any trace and have never had bites (nor know anyone that has), but it still crept me out about little bugs that could be there.

Yuck, so back to Spying in High Heels by Gemma Halliday, which should clear all those thoughts about bugs out of my head.

Dreams... wanna REALLY feel creepy? There are little bitty bugs that live their entire lives on our eyelashes. So small that they can move right under the skin where the lash emerges and go back inside again. And we never even know they are there! Everyone has 'em, and they do absolutely no harm at all.